A report from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also highlighted the difficulty Palestinians face in obtaining building permits needed to prevent such demolition orders.
More than 11,000 Israeli demolition orders relating to an estimated 13,000 Palestinian structures are currently awaiting implementation in a huge swathe of the occupied West Bank, said the report entitled “Under Threat.”
Between 1988 and 2014, Israel issued more than 14,000 demolition orders against Palestinian-owned structures, of which upwards of 11,000 are currently outstanding, it said.
Last month 31 international organizations, including Oxfam and Amnesty International, criticized what they called a “surge” in West Bank demolitions.
They cited UN figures showing Israel’s destruction of 63 houses and other structures in a single week in August, leaving 132 Palestinians homeless.
They have previously said such demolitions are carried out because the structures were built without the required construction permits.
But Palestinians say such authorization is routinely denied, forcing unlicensed building, an argument echoed by the UN report.
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